John Carmack "saddened" by retreat from mobile, several projects now on hiatus

id Software's has put all mobile development on hold while the studio finishes Doom 4, Polygon reports.

Speaking at QuakeCon, studio co-founder John Carmack admitted that the decision to close id's mobile projects "saddened" him, but the talent being employed to make them were required for Doom 4.

"I love doing the mobile work - taking that time, spending a month, a year or something working on a mobile project," he said.

"It was looked at as something that, yes, this is fun, this is fun for the company and it's entertaining and it makes money, but it's not a grand slam sort of thing on there. The Bethesda family really is about swinging for the fences."

As the iOS market flourished, Carmack made his enthusiasm for the new market clear, establishing a mobile team in 2007 that has produced six games, largely based on id's classic IP. The studio has "a couple of projects" for mobile on hold, including one that is basically finished, and Carmack made it clear that he intends to return to the space.

"I hope we get back to mobile in various ways in the future," he said, "but the big real aim is blockbuster, AAA titles, and for id that means Doom 4, it means that we get the whole company behind that after we get Doom 3: BFG Edition out the door. Essentially, everybody will be focused on Doom 4 as a project."

However, when asked about the possible release date for Doom 4, Carmack was evasive.

"Every decade there will be a Doom, but hopefully we can do better than that."

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Was this the whole reason why John was given so much investment to play with his pet project with the VR head mounted display? Is he going to bale to play more in VR as the company becomes more mainstream and de-focused?